Some Truth From Iraq

It is so refreshing to read a more truthful and accurate account of what is going on in Iraq. It is such a shame that these kinds of reports are so few and far in between. Don’t ever read Michael Gordon’s pieces in the New York Times if you want to know what is REALLY going on in Iraq. Today, however, we have a retired Foreign Service Officer who worked in the middle of it all saying it like it really is:

Baqubah is a battlefield, the site of a major push against al-Qaeda and other insurgents. The houses that haven’t been destroyed are riddled with bullet holes. Many of the Iraqis I worked with are dead, and many others have fled.

The reason for some of this destruction lies, as our newspapers tell us, in the outpouring of al-Qaeda operatives from Baghdad, a result of the latest U.S. troop “surge” into the capital. Much of the responsibility, however, is ours.

The actions of American troops have prompted much of the resistance in Diyala province. More important, these actions are symptomatic of other factors, including the short attention span of the American people, the regular rotation of our troops, the understandable desire of each commander to distinguish himself, and our very American belief that we can solve problems quickly when others can’t. We have allowed all of these factors to run away with the war in Iraq.

Kiki then goes on to describe several incidents that highlight our failures. I recommend reading the entire piece if you want an accurate portrayal of the problems in Iraq. Kiki’s conclusion:

And we Americans? We are trumpeting our “new” initiative of enlisting Sunni tribal chiefs to our side. We are busy “building confidence” among the Iraqi security forces who, we now admit, have had sectarian tendencies. We’re also mounting a massive campaign against . . . our “enemies.”

We have forgotten or not bothered to remember what we have done over the past months.

But the Iraqis have not forgotten. They have lived this chapter before. Only it was better then, last year.